Stanislav Lunev

Stanislav Lunev (born 1946 in Leningrad) is the highest-ranking GRU officer to defect from Russia to the United States.

He was born in the family of a Soviet Army officer. He graduated from the Suvorov Military School in Vladikavkaz, and then from Joint Arms High Command Military Academy, a Soviet equivalent of United States Military Academy.

He then worked as a GRU intelligence officer in Singapore in 1978, in China from 1980, and in the United States from 1988. He defected to U.S. authorities in 1992. Since then he has worked as a consultant to the FBI, CIA and other agencies and private corporations. He remains in the FBI’s Witness Protection Program.

His book

Lunev published book "Through the Eyes of the Enemy" Stanislav Lunev. Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-89526-390-4 ] . He also occasionally writes for Internet newspapers [ [http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/6/15/125244 Col. Stanislav Lunev] in NewsMax.com ] In the book, he described his work as a Soviet spy. He said that his work was extremely successful because he follow a very basic rule that "the best spy will be everyone's best friend, not a shadowy figure in the corner".

In the book he also described some active measures against the "Main adversary". He stated that "the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad.". According to Lunev, Soviet Union wisely spent more money on funding of U.S. anti-war movements during the Vietnam War than on funding and arming the VietCong forces .

Nuclear sabotage operations

Lunev is mostly know for his description of nuclear sabotage operations that have allegedly been prepared by the KGB and GRU against the western countries. It was known from other sources that large arms caches were hidden by the KGB in many countries for the planned terrorism acts. They were booby-trapped with "Lightning" explosive devices. One of such cache, which was identified by Vasili Mitrokhin, exploded when Swiss authorities tried to remove it from woods near Berne. Several others caches were removed successfully. [ Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin (1999) "The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West." Allen Lane. ISBN 0-713-99358-8, page 475-476 ]

Lunev asserted that some of the hidden caches could contain portable tactical nuclear weapons known as RA-115 "suitcase bombs". Such bombs have been prepared to assassinate US leaders in the event of war, according to him Stanislav Lunev. Through the Eyes of the Enemy: The Autobiography of Stanislav Lunev, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1998. ISBN 0-89526-390-4 These portable bombs can last for many years if wired to an electric source. “In case there is a loss of power, there is a battery backup. If the battery runs low, the weapon has a transmitter that sends a coded message – either by satellite or directly to a GRU post at a Russian embassy or consulate.” ] Lunev states that he had personally looked for hiding places for weapons caches in the Shenandoah Valley area and that "it is surprisingly easy to smuggle nuclear weapons into the US" either across the Mexican border or using a small transport missile that can slip undetected when launched from a Russian airplane

US Congressman Curt Weldon supported claims by Lunev but noted that Lunev had "exaggerated things" according to the FBI. [Nicholas Horrock, [http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2001/12/20/fbi_focusing_on_portable_nuke_threat/9007/ "FBI focusing on portable nuke threat"] , "UPI" (20 December 2001).] Searches of the areas identified by Lunev - who admits he never planted any weapons in the US - have been conducted, "but law-enforcement officials have never found such weapons caches, with or without portable nuclear weapons." [ Steve Goldstein and Chris Mondics, "Some Weldon-backed allegations unconfirmed; Among them: A plot to crash planes into a reactor, and missing suitcase-size Soviet atomic weapons." "Philadelphia Inquirer" (15 March 2006) A7.]

Poisoning of Potomac River

According to Lunev, a probable scenario in the event of war would be poisoning of Potomac River with chemical or biological weapons, "targeting the residents of Washington DC" He also noted that it is "likely" that GRU operatives have placed already "poison supplies near the tributaries to major US reservoirs." [ Lunev, pages 29-30 ] . These allegations have been confirmed by former SVR officer Kouzminov Alexander Kouzminov "Biological Espionage: Special Operations of the Soviet and Russian Foreign Intelligence Services in the West", Greenhill Books, 2006, ISBN 1-853-67646-2 [http://www.calitreview.com/Interviews/int_kouzminov_8013.htm] ] who was responsible for transporting dangerous pathogens from around the world for Russian program of biological weapons in the 1980s and the beginning of 1990s. He described a variety of biological terrorism acts that would be carried out on the order of the Russian President in the event of hostilities, including poisoning public drinking-water supplies and food processing plants. [ Kusminov, pages 35-36. At the end of the 1980s, the Soviet Union "was the only country in the world that could start and win a global biological war, something we had already established that the West was not ready for.", according to Kouzminov ]

References

ome of his publications

* [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?search=1&volume_id=4&issue_id=199&article_id=2330 Russian organized crime spreads beyond Russia's borders, squeezing out the local competition]
* [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?search=1&volume_id=3&issue_id=145&article_id=1722 The Degradation of Russia's Special Forces]
* [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?search=1&volume_id=1&issue_id=100&article_id=1181 Russia's Ominous New Military Doctrine]
* [http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/6/15/125244 His publications in NewsMax.com]